I did it! I did it, you guys! Today was the last day of my personal Project 365. See all the photos here. I would say, 'Wow, I can't believe it's already been a year,' except that I clearly remember thinking when I started that a year would be over before I even knew it. So I can believe.

Still, I'm very proud. I've designed a poster with thumbnails of all 365 photos, but I have to actually now put in the higher-res images instead of the 72 dpi thumbnails I pulled off flickr. BOR-RING.

The image above was today's photo, which I took to pair with the first photo from my 365. A year ago, I had just baked a loaf of rye bread. Today, I just brought some back from Tobies in Hinckley.

I had a really nice week at the cabin, and I was pretty darn productive. I even began work on a slight redesign of this site. What I really want to change is the way I use it (that is, I want to use it more), but a new look will help that a bit. I think that being away -- and without a constant internet connection -- made me realize how quantity-over-quality I've become in my internet use. Always being tapped in is a bit overwhelming; I actually preferred making a fuss over going to the supermarket to catch up on things. And I think appreciating the connection made me in turn appreciate being able to write for this blog and share my day with you fine folks. So I want to try to hang on to that feeling.

I have a habit of all-or-nothing thinking, and I like to make everything a project, but I'm trying to let go of that. It's too demanding of a way to live, and it's not necessary; this past week has taught me that. I was more productive, both professionally and personally, than I've been in a long time, and it wasn't because I set myself a rigid schedule or came up with a set of rules on how I was going to spend me time. It was the opposite, in fact -- I relaxed and enjoyed the world around me, and everything else fell into place. So that's my only 'goal' for the moment -- relax, enjoy, accept.

And less internet.

Oh boy. I've really been living it up so far this week. Dinner last night: leftover Kraft mac'n'cheese with a veggie dog! Of course, I had a heap of homegrown broccoli on the side, as well as some of the pickle chips I made (which are flipping amazing, by the way -- I will share the recipe when I get back home!), so that helped maintain some of my crunchy granola street cred.

Thanks to a text from my dad, I now know that there IS public radio reception here -- it comes from Duluth instead of the cities, so it's a different number. It also made a big difference to use an actual radio instead of trying to tune in with my phone (connected to iPod speakers through a cord that wasn't really long enough to serve as an antenna). Breakfast might be the most important meal of the day, but it doesn't mean a thing if you haven't got coffee + public radio to help you wake up. In my view.

Yesterday afternoon, Beany and I took a proper walk through the forest -- she was on her lead, of course. I was really surprised how well she did! She stuck to the path that my mom has cut through the woods, stopping every now and then to sniff things (and to jump up on every rock and fallen tree trunk we passed). Any time she seemed determined to wander off the path, I gave her the tiniest tug on the lead and said 'c'mon', and we continued on our way. Better than most dogs I know!

We'd got pretty far when the wind started picking up, and I could see dark clouds rolling in. Beany definitely sensed something too, and she let me pick her up and carry her halfway back to the cabin. I put her down again and we finished walking the rest of the way -- and not even five minutes after we were inside again, it started chucking down rain. I was VERY glad not to be stuck in the middle of the woods with a cat in the rain.

Ahoy! I didn't think I would be posting at all while I'm away, but it turns out that not having a constant connection to the internet leaves a person with loads of time to do other things -- like writing stuff to put on one's internet website. My plan at the moment is to get coffee in the afternoon and use the free wifi to post this.

Being away from home has already given me such a feeling of control over my own time -- strange, since, in theory, I always am in control of how I spend my time. But there's no garden to tend to up here, no errands I 'have' to run, and, again, no internet to steal away my attention. I think the solitude might be a bit crazy-making if I didn't have the cats up here with me, and I'm sorely missing being able to listen to public radio -- but it's okay for the time being.

On the topic of crazy, I went to the thrift store in Hinckley yesterday and bought some plates and dishes, even though my parents already have plenty in the cupboards. But A) I didn't have the perfect bowl for yogurt or ice cream and B) I like my dishes to be white, for photography purposes. I'm a little bit too excited about the oblong, ex-diner plate I found, and the milk glass bowl and Fire King cup are pretty good, too. There are stranger ways to weird, I guess.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way back to the cabin yesterday, for a couple of essentials, and I noticed that they have the cutest donuts ever. They're smaller than ones I usually see, and about as big around as they are tall. Part of a perfect 'retreat' breakfast, along with yogurt and fruit (including frozen raspberries that my mom picked this past weekend).

Yep, so that's all good. Now. . . just three-hundred more submissions to read. . .

Well, now that I've finished painting and organizing my guest bedroom, I'm free to go away for a while without it consuming my thoughts. I'm taking a mini retreat in order to get some work done and to start some personal creative projects -- a sort of Walden Pond thing, except the pond has pretty much dried up (at my parents' cabin).

Since people asked, here is a good explanation of Branston pickle. It's not quite as sharp/tangy/vinegary as a lot of the Indian pickles I've tried. Instead, it's sort of sweet, and it goes really, really well with very sharp cheddar.

Speaking of pickled things, though (again) -- I picked my first batch of cucumbers yesterday and made refrigerator pickles. The dill seed came from the garden, too! What I was really pleased with was that I got the chance to use my mandoline to make the crinkle-cut chip shapes. It's worth the cupboard space it takes up just for that!

When Rob was preparing for his trip over here, I requested one thing: pickle (well, and to borrow his season four Buffy DVDs). I've never seen pickle sold here, apart from the rare, shockingly overpriced jar of generic 'British Import' stuff. Give me Branston, and give me squeezy.

I didn't like pickle until fairly recently (it's on the list of foods that Rob loves and I insisted I hated, except it turns out I don't), but it's pretty important in one of my favourite sandwiches -- toasted cheese, egg, and pickle. The egg is scrambled first and formed into a bread-shaped slab before being sandwiched between two pieces of bread -- cheese on one, pickle on the other. I use the same skillet I scrambled the eggs in to toast both sides of the sandwich. It's not gourmet, but it's good.

Speaking of pickle and pickled things, I harvested my first cucumber this afternoon, along with four good-sized zucchinis (three yellow and one green). There are a few more cucumbers that will be ready in a few days' time, so I think refrigerator pickles will be in order! Very exciting.

So, I was gallantly going to promise to update every remaining day in July, to make up for my total absence during the first two thirds, but then I remembered that I'm planning to be without internet for most of next week. Whoops. But I can do my best until then!

I spent the past couple of evenings repainting my guest room (it was my bedroom up until last summer, and it was this colour up until yesterday). I'd been thinking about painting a room yellow for at least a good year, so I decided to finally just do it. The light blue in the guest room was nice, but it was actually pretty limiting, as far as changing the look and colour scheme of the room.

I'm really happy with the shade I chose -- I used a swatch of fabric from the yellow curtains I have in my living room and piano room and tried to find something just a bit lighter. I had a slight panic when I started rolling the paint on (after cutting in with a brush, of course) -- it suddenly looked very wrong. But I think that it was just the combination of the old and new colours. Yellow and blue, especially in pastel shades, is a combination that makes my teeth gnash. Even though I'm really happy to finally hang that Glasgow School of Art print up above, I think I might end up putting it elsewhere -- blue and yellow. Shudder.

The task now is to find a cheap bed frame at the thrift store, as the old day bed was just too big and could only be put against one wall. And I have to get lots of storage containers and try to sort things out. There are so many little THINGS that need to have a better home. If I go through and pull out what I really need/use on a regular basis versus stuff I haven't touched in over a year, I know there won't be all that much -- but my brain has a very distinct (okay, roughly accurate) map of where and in which boxes various objects are kept, even though the system is screwy.

I'm looking forward to having an actual guest in a few weeks' time, so I'll have to get things sorted out before then -- and I'll post picture when I do!

-- Hello, friend-pals! I've been trying not to say, 'Oops! I forgot to post!' every time I remember to write something here, so as not to draw attention to it, but I really did drop the ball this time. My excuse is that I was busy having fun with Rob. But he's gone back to the UK now, so I can return to my regular programming.

-- I added some new photos to my garden set at flickr. Everything seems to be growing well. I was away last week, and in that time, strawberries started ripening (I only have a couple of plants, so there's no big harvest there), there are cucumbers on the vine, and everything just seems bigger. We're definitely heading into zucchini season; my yellow zucchini plant suddenly has half a dozen fruit about ready to be picked all at once -- not sure how that happened.

-- I've been really into summer food this year, which pretty much just means grilled food. I made my entire dinner tonight on the BBQ, including the kale (steamed in some tin foil). It was the first time I've tried grilling tofu, although I've been meaning to try it for a while now -- and it was definitely some of the best tofu I've ever had. I drained it for about an hour in a cotton towel (not terrycloth, though), which always does a better job than paper. Then I let the pieces sit in a marinade of soy sauce, vinegar, nutritional yeast, BBQ sauce, and a random assortment of my usual spices (garlic powder, cumin, oregano...). The end result had loads of flavour while still being tofu-y (which I consider to be a good thing), and the texture was much different than sauteed -- dryer and denser.

-- Well, I suppose it might be a good time to brush my teeth and think about bed-time things (which means reading and playing solitaire for another half hour, at least. A week or two ago, I suddenly started going to bed about an hour later than usual -- I don't sleep much later, but I guess I'm just on summer hours. Lovely summer.